1 time background
Taylor and Fa Yueer, the outstanding representatives of classical management theory, have made outstanding contributions to the development of management thought and theory in different aspects, and have had a far-reaching impact on management practice, but they have one common feature, that is, they both emphasize the scientificity, rationality and discipline of management; Not paying enough attention to human factors and functions in management. Their theory is based on the assumption that society is composed of unorganized individual groups; They strive for personal interests in thought and action and pursue the maximization of economic benefits, that is, "economic man"; The management department only faces the simple addition of a single employee or individual. Based on this understanding, workers are arranged to engage in fixed, boring and simplistic jobs and become "living machines". From the practice of carrying out scientific management in the United States in the 1920s, Taylor system not only greatly improved productivity, but also made workers' labor extremely tense, monotonous and tired, which caused strong dissatisfaction among workers and led to the occurrence of events such as workers' slackness, strikes and increasingly tense labor relations. On the other hand, with the development of economy and scientific progress, workers with higher education and technical level gradually occupy the dominant position, and manual labor gradually gives way to mental labor, which also makes the western bourgeoisie feel that it is impossible to effectively control workers simply by using classical management theories and methods to achieve the purpose of improving productivity and profits. This requires seeking and exploring new management ideas, management theories and management methods.
2 factory profile
This series of psychological research in Hawthorne Factory, a subsidiary of Chicago West Electric Company, USA, was presided over by Mayo, a professor of psychology at Harvard University.
Hawthorne Factory is a factory that manufactures telephone exchanges. It has perfect recreational facilities, medical care system and pension system, but the workers are still indignant and the production results are not satisfactory. In order to find out the reason, the National Research Council of the United States organized a research group to conduct experimental research.
3 management thought
Hawthorne experiment made a bold breakthrough in the classical management theory, and shifted the focus of management research from work and material factors to human factors for the first time. It not only revised and supplemented the classical management theory in theory, opened up a new theory of management research, but also laid the foundation for the development of modern behavioral science and had a far-reaching impact on management practice.
(1) Talents are the source of power for enterprise development.
People, money and things are the three elements of enterprise management, and manpower is the most active and creative factor. Even with the most advanced technology and equipment, the most complete material information, without accurate and sufficient input from people, everything will be meaningless. Effective management of people is not only the premise of effective utilization of existing material resources, but also the most basic condition for all innovations. Especially in the modern society with rapid development of high technology, innovation is the only way for enterprises to survive and develop. Innovation is the patent of talents, and excellent talents are the most important assets of enterprises. Whoever can develop and utilize human resources more effectively may be in an invincible position in the increasingly fierce market competition.
But people's creativity is conditional and based on people's initiative. Hard and mechanical management can only obliterate their talents. "Only satisfied employees are productive employees", and productive employees are the real talents of enterprises and the source of power for enterprise development. Therefore, managers of enterprises should not only satisfy shareholders and customers, but also satisfy employees. For different employees, different levels of needs are treated separately. We should carefully analyze their ideas and understand their real needs; We should not only meet the necessary material needs, but also meet the deeper social needs, that is, be respected and valued, which can reflect the value of self. For example, in the process of management, in order to meet the social needs of employees, we can strengthen the degree of employees' participation in management, increase employees' concern for enterprises through democratic management and democratic supervision mechanism, increase their sense of responsibility and personal accomplishment as masters, and perfectly unify personal goals with business goals of enterprises, thus stimulating greater enthusiasm for work and giving play to their subjective initiative and creativity.
For state-owned enterprises in China, it is particularly important to respect talents. In order to revitalize existing assets, we must first revitalize existing human resources. Because only "living" people can activate "dead" assets, which is the only way out for enterprises. Employees are not the burden of enterprises, but the backbone of self-help. Only by respecting them can we give full play to their creativity and share the same breath with enterprises to tide over the difficulties together.
(2) Effective communication is an artistic method of management.
Management is an art, especially for people. A new generation of managers should be more aware of this. The leadership style that is self-centered, speaks loudly and teaches subordinates is no longer applicable. As early as Hawthorne's interview experiment, Mayo has noticed that friendly communication can not only understand the needs of employees, but also improve the relationship between superiors and subordinates, thus making employees work harder voluntarily. Listening is an effective way of communication. Wise and mature managers will think that listening to others' opinions is more important than showing their profound knowledge. He should be good at helping and inspiring others to express their thoughts and feelings, and not take the initiative to express his views. Being good at listening to others' opinions and stimulating their creative thinking can not only enhance employees' trust in managers, but also enable managers to obtain useful information and organize their work more effectively. Praising others in time is also an extremely effective means in management. Giving appropriate praise to contributing employees in public will enhance their self-confidence and sense of mission, so as to strive to create better performance. Adopting the management mode of "being kind to others" will not only help to create a harmonious working atmosphere, but also improve employees' satisfaction, so that they can continue to make unremitting efforts to achieve enterprise goals.
(3) Corporate culture is an effective way to seek a dynamic balance between efficiency logic and emotional logic.
Discovering the existence of informal organizations is an important contribution of Mayo's interpersonal relationship theory, and as managers of enterprises, we should also pay attention to it. Employees do not exist as an isolated individual, but as a member of the collective, and their behavior is greatly influenced by other individuals in the collective. How to eliminate the negative impact of informal organizations on employees is also a problem that contemporary managers must face up to. Only when the interests of individuals, collectives and enterprises are balanced can the potential of individuals be brought into full play. Cultivating the same values and creating a positive corporate culture is the most effective way to coordinate the relationship between various interest groups within the organization, give play to the synergistic effect of the organization and increase the cohesion of the enterprise.
In a word, management is not only the management of material productivity, but also the management of people with thoughts and feelings. The value of human beings is incalculable, the most precious resource in society and the most dazzling pearl in productivity. Only by developing human resources to the maximum extent and establishing a management thinking mode of "attaching importance to, respecting and understanding people" can the development of enterprises have a bright future.
4 experimental stage
Hawthorne experiment is divided into four stages:
Lighting experiment
From1October 1924 165438+ to April 1927.
At that time, the theory of production efficiency was mainly based on the viewpoint of labor medicine, which believed that fatigue and monotony might affect workers' production efficiency, so the experimental hypothesis at that time was that "improving illumination would help reduce fatigue and improve production efficiency". However, after more than two years of experiments, it is found that the change of illumination has no effect on production efficiency. The specific results are as follows: when the light in the experimental group increases, both the experimental group and the control group increase production; When the illumination of the experimental group weakened, the output of the two groups still increased, and even when the illumination of the experimental group decreased to 0.06 candle, the output did not decrease significantly. It was not until the lights were reduced to moonlight that the output fell sharply. The researchers were at a loss and lost confidence in the results.
From 1927, a group of psychologists from Harvard University headed by Professor Mayo took over the experimental work and continued it.
Welfare experiment
(Research on relay assembly laboratory)
The time is from April 1927 to June 1929.
The purpose of the experiment is to find out the relationship between welfare transformation and production efficiency. However, after more than two years of experiments, it is found that no matter how the welfare benefits change (including the changes in the way of paying wages, the increase or decrease of preferential measures, the increase or decrease of rest time, etc. ), it will not affect the continuous increase of output, and even the workers themselves can't explain the reasons for the improvement of production efficiency.
After further analysis, it is found that the main reasons for improving production efficiency are: 1, the sense of honor to participate in the experiment. At the beginning of the experiment, six female workers who participated in the experiment were called into the minister's office to talk. They consider it a great honor. This shows that valued pride can obviously promote people's enthusiasm. 2. Good relations among members.
Interview experiment
The researchers started the interview plan at the factory. The original idea of this plan was to ask workers to answer questions about the planning and policies of the management, the attitude of the foreman and the working conditions, but this stipulated interview plan was unexpected and achieved unexpected results in the process. What workers want to talk about is beyond the work outline. What workers think is important is not what the company or investigators think is meaningful. Knowing this, the interviewer promptly changed the interview plan to not specify the content in advance, and the average time of each interview was extended from 30 minutes to 1- 1.5 hours, listening more and talking less, and recording the workers' dissatisfaction and opinions in detail. The interview plan lasted for more than two years. The output of workers has greatly increased.
Workers have long been dissatisfied with the management system and methods of the factory and have nowhere to vent. The implementation of the interview plan just provides them with an opportunity to vent. After venting, I feel comfortable, my morale is improved, and my output is improved.
Group experiment
(Research on Bank Wire Transfer Room)
Mayo et al. selected 14 male workers in this experiment for winding, welding and inspection in a separate room. Implement a special piece-rate wage system for our team workers.
The experimenter originally imagined that the implementation of this set of incentive measures would make workers work harder in order to get more pay. However, the observation results show that the output is only at a medium level, and the average daily output of each worker is almost the same, so it is better for workers to report the output on the spot. In-depth investigation found that this team spontaneously formed some norms in order to safeguard the interests of its own group. They agree that no one can go too far and highlight himself; No one can do too little, which will affect the output of the whole group. It is forbidden to tell the management in Chapter Three of the Contract. Anyone who violates these regulations will be sarcastic and swearing, but he will also punch and kick. Further investigation found that the reason why the workers maintained a medium level of output was because they were worried that the management would change the current reward system or lay off employees, so that some workers lost their jobs, or their slow-working partners would be punished.
This experiment shows that in order to maintain the unity within the team, we can give up the temptation of material interests. This paper puts forward the concept of "informal group", and holds that there are spontaneous informal groups in formal organizations, which have their own special behavior norms and play a role in regulating and controlling people's behavior. At the same time, the internal cooperative relationship has also been strengthened.
1933, Mayo published Human Issues of Industrial Civilization.
5 experimental conclusion
1, workers are "social people"
2. There are "abnormal organizations" in the enterprise.
3. The new leadership ability lies in improving employees' satisfaction.
4. Hawthorne effect exists.
6 Supplementary explanation
At first, 1924, the western electronics company conducted an experiment at Hawthorne factory in Illinois (Hawthorne research, 1927 ~ 1932). The method used in this experiment belongs to the semi-observation field method, which is to find out whether there are factors other than "fatigue" that will reduce productivity.
Workers are divided into two groups: one is the control group, and all workers continue to work in the same environment; One group is the experimental group, and the experiment itself is to observe the reaction of workers when various changes occur in the working environment and compare the productivity of the two groups.
The working environment of Hawthorne experiment is changed by changing the illumination brightness. As a result, the brightness increases and the productivity increases, but the brightness gradually decreases and the productivity continues to increase. Stranger still, the lights in the control group have not changed at all, but the productivity will still increase. Even if experimenters extend working hours or reduce rest time, productivity will increase. Many employees are more satisfied with their work than before the experiment.
1927 Mayo was asked to explain these unreasonable experimental results, and was also asked to do some related experiments to verify them. For example, the rest time is self-determined, or the experimental group gets a raise, while the control group doesn't get a raise. Interestingly, the production capacity of both the experimental group and the control group has improved.
After several years of research, Mayo and his colleagues finally found that financial incentives did not affect productivity, because in the experiment, productivity would increase regardless of salary increase. After further understanding, I realized that when these workers were selected to participate in the experiment, they felt that it was an individual honor, and this mentality formed the honor of the whole team, thus producing an "emotional chain reaction." In other words, the result of this experiment is not as expected, and it seems to be an almost failed experiment.
However, Mayo and his colleagues learned from Hawthorne's experiments that the sense of belonging to the team can also meet individual psychological needs. In addition, giving employees the responsibility of task decision-making makes them more willing to take the task as their own responsibility and go all out. Secondly, the manager in charge of the task's affirmation and attention to the whole incident will make employees understand that they have made unique and important contributions to the organization.
Hawthorne's experiments have made considerable contributions to management theory:
1 It lets workers know that they are not just an extension of the machine.
It has triggered a series of related measures and research in industry and academia.
It opens the door to social science for management.
At the same time, researchers should also review that the investigation should not be too close to the subject matter, otherwise it will affect the experimental results (called Hawthorne effect).
Mayo and his colleagues found that managers should have a deeper understanding of the humanistic, social and behavioral aspects of management.
Introduction to Hawthorne effect
When performance or effort increases due to extra attention, we call it the Hawthorne effect.
"informal group"
Also known as informal organizations and informal groups. It is a group of friends and peers with distinct feelings and formed on the basis of personal affection and love.
7 external evaluation
Contribution: It is the first time to shift the research focus from work and material factors to human factors, which not only expands and supplements the classical management theory in theory, but also lays the foundation for modern behavioral science theory and has a far-reaching impact on management practice.
Limitations:
1 Excessive negation of the hypothesis of economic man
2 excessive dependence on informal organizations
3 excessive emphasis on emotional logic
References:
1.
1. Human Performance Engineering-Bailey
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